


The Door in the Sky

by graestu



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 15:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20876786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graestu/pseuds/graestu
Summary: The Doctor and Yaz fall through a door in the sky into a desert.





	The Door in the Sky

"No! Doctor! Come back!" "Yaz! Wait!"

The distorted yelling of Graham and Ryan echoed around as The Doctor and Yaz fell through the shimmering air. With barely time to realise what was happening, they crash landed down a mountain of tiny seashells. The desert stretched in all directions beyond the rusty network of struts above.

"... or it could be dangerous," said The Doctor as they helped each other to stand on the shifting, splintering surface. "Really should've thought of that!"

While shaking off the dust, a suit of armour dropped beside them, bringing more bits of the spindly structure down too.

"It wasn't guarding treasure after all. It was keeping people away from danger."

"By killing anyone who came near?" Yaz pointed out. "Bit drastic."

"True," agreed The Doctor, waving her sonic screwdriver over the laser attached to its arm.

"Doctor!" "Yaz!"

Graham and Ryan were shouting again, sounding like they were battling against a storm.

"Stay back!" The Doctor called up. "We're OK!"

And a door slammed high in the sky.

"Right!" said The Doctor. "Let's crack on with escaping! Not least because I don't fancy being on this side of a 'two blokes rescue a couple of helpless women' caper!"

Which amused Yaz, who relaxed a little for the first time since entering the tunnel behind the bookcase...

"The library survey team from the British Empire Office, my Lord."

"Show them the way, Hardwick."

"Very good, Sir"

"So _YOU'RE_ Mrs Euphonia Ballast!" squealed the delighted Lady Isabella.

The psychic paper had done its trick, and the butler escorted The Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan through the hallway of Plumcoate Manor.

Lord Chubbfuddler wandered away with a dismissive wave, as his daughter clapped with glee.

It was Autumn 1920.

Their previous visit, in the summer, was cut short before they had a chance to properly investigate the secret chamber behind a revolving bookcase which Ryan fell through. It led down to a tunnel where an automatic security robot in the form of a suit of armour with a laser gun was guarding a door.

"Abbie!" called The Doctor cheerily.

The young maid, completing her last minute dusting, smiled at this rare kindness. But under the stern eyes of Hardwick, could only give a quick nod in recognition.

"You will _not_ be disturbed," he said, fixing a disapproving stare at the hapless Abbie, who scurried away.

He closed the door on the way out.

There were grumbles all round at Abbie's treatment, similar to that witnessed last time, from the unblinking housekeeper.

Then, The Doctor waved her sonic screwdriver near the hidden spring which she had secured previously. It pinged oddly, as it twanged, and the bookcase turned.

"Not for me, this time," said Ryan. "Spiral staircase in the dark? I'd rather not."

"That's OK, son," said Graham. "Tell you what, stay and help me make a book list. Who knows what we might find, eh?"

Yaz's police torch lit the way down.

At the bottom step, she and The Doctor examined the skeletons littered around.

"Clothes from several historical eras," The Doctor pointed out. "None recent. And each scorched by laser fire. All in the back."

They followed their own scuffed footprints, which stopped at the wobbly paving slab that was the trigger to activate the robot - only its rusty joints had prevented it taking aim on their first visit. This time, they jumped over it, and the suit of armour remained lifeless through the cobwebs at the end of the tunnel.

"You watched _Downstairs Abbie_ , " teased Graham. Was there an episode with a killer robot down a secret passage?"

He was referring to the recent hit TV series - a favourite of Grace, but which, somehow, Ryan had an encyclopaedic knowledge of.

It was based on the autobiography of the Plumcoate Manor maid, and it was a suggested visit to the filming location that brought them here in the first place. _[As told in "Downstairs Abbie"/graestu/26 Sept 19]_

"No. There wasn't," Ryan replied abruptly, trying to make out he'd only vaguely seen bits of it, but sounding more like he was cross that Graham would insult his beloved programme.

"No," said Graham. "I 'spect they're saving that for the film."

At the end of the tunnel, The Doctor and Yaz edged past the suit of armour and examined the large wooden door.

"I'd've done this on the blackboard in the old days, but what do you think, Yaz?"

"Hmm... door, tunnel, armour, manor, revolving bookcase. All from the same date?"

"I'd say so."

"But the trigger and laser. Got to be alien or from the future."

"Exactly!" And there's one way to see what treasure Rusty's guarding. Ready?"

They tugged on the great door, and as it creaked then swung open, they were pulled inside by a swirling wind.

"Not sulking, are you, Ryan?" asked Graham, with no response. "I said, 'Not sulking, Ryan?' only you've gone very quiet.

Ryan looked up from the book he had found.

"The family history," he explained. "With a list of disappeared ancestors."

He nodded towards the skeletons.

"I'm on one about black magic," grinned Graham, but his expression turned serious as he flicked through the pages.

"It's how they interpreted things in the past, I suppose," he said, distracted. "But it describes a silver, flame-throwing giant at the entrance to the underworld...."

A brief look at Ryan was enough.

They grabbed their torches, dashed to the bookcase, and squeezed behind it as quickly as they could.

The Doctor and Yaz rolled aside the long metal bars scattered around, and crunched their way over the shells to the tower.

They began to climb.

"This seems to be all that's left of a pier, in a dried up sea," said The Doctor.

"Built to reach the door? What is it? A portal between dimensions?"

"Yes. And worryingly easy to get through. It suggests they're separating, weakening the link. And using the door too often will loosen the bond even more. If they come apart, we'll never get back..."

Graham and Ryan waited at the door, tempted to open it, but searching for clues in the ancient black magic book.

"I thought we'd get here before they went in." Graham sighed. "Come on! We've got to help!"

But he was interrupted before pulling the door open.

"Oh my days!" gasped Ryan, spotting a demonic figure in an illustration. "That's Mrs Clabby! The housekeeper!"

Graham saw the double horror on Ryan's torchlit face, and gulped, "And she's standing right behind me, isn't she?"

The Doctor and Yaz helped each other up onto the few remaining floorboards, noting the broken brackets around the door where the metal bars had been ripped out as the two dimensions had shifted. On a count of three, they barged forward, through the swirling wind.

The door crashed open, throwing The Doctor and Yaz into the tunnel.

Graham and Ryan tried to overpower Mrs Clabby in the confusion.

But she was too quick, and hurled herself at the opening.

The Doctor slammed the door shut.

There was a tremendous earthquake going on behind it as the two worlds disconnected.

After it suddenly stopped, The Doctor creaked open the door to check, and found only an empty cellar.

"They - in the other dimension - were using that portal as a prison door," she explained, on the walk back to the library, disabling the trigger on the way.

"Sending their villains into our world?" said Yaz.

"Charming!" said Graham.

"The connection's been cut," added The Doctor.

"But with other _'Mrs Clabby' _s still here?" asked Ryan.

The Doctor nodded.

Ryan recognised a valuable ring, from a portrait in the book, on one of the skeleton's fingers, and it was decided to reveal the riddle of the disappeared ancestors.

Leaving the library, with the bookcase open, The Doctor led Graham, Yaz and Ryan into the hallway, where Lady Isabella was holding a letter.

"Mrs Clabby's left us," she said, upset and puzzled.

"After centuries of service," quipped her father, more accurately then he realised.

The Doctor approached.

"We're all done here," she said.

Hardwick the butler appeared on the scene.

And so that he could overhear, The Doctor announced, "And thanks to Abbie's diligent dusting of the bookcase, we think we've solved a family mystery," and handed the ring to Lord Chubbfuddler.

Hardwick escorted them out.

"Mrs Clabby's note was written hundreds of years ago," said The Doctor on the driveway. "Ready for the right time."

"There's one thing I don't understand, Doc," said Graham. "Who the hell is Mrs Euphonia Ballast?!"

The Doctor chuckled at the psychic paper's joke.

"Ha! A famous archaeologist from this time. I've never met her... Maybe one day... "

_[ Mrs Euphonia Ballast (1860 - 1945) Historian and leading light of the Golden Age of British Archaeology. Especially prominent in the Bristol area. Wrote the definitive work on Silbury Hill after a major 1920s excavation. This book was later described by Ms Bill Potts as 'useless', calling the author 'a silly old bag'._ _Further reading : The Secret of Silbury Hill/graestu/27 Sept 19 ]_


End file.
